


The Double Date

by Eienvine



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24773146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eienvine/pseuds/Eienvine
Summary: Thor brings his new fiancée to town to meet his brother Loki and his best friend Sif, and, being firmly on Team Sifki and eager to force them to spend time together, suggests the four of them go on a double date.Loki is concerned about Sif, who he’s certain is heartbroken that Thor is engaged to another. Sif cannot figure out why Loki keeps giving her sympathetic looks. Thor is in full matchmaker mode. And Jane is just enjoying the ride.
Relationships: Jane Foster/Thor, Loki/Sif (Marvel)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 106





	The Double Date

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted some unrepentant, unabashed fluff. :D
> 
> Thanks to CallistoNicol for beta reading!

. . . . . .

THOR

. . . . . .

He tells Loki first.

This is partly because his parents already know; he called Frigga when he first began considering taking this step, for advice and encouragement, and he knows that Frigga told Odin. (He pretends that’s why he didn’t tell Odin himself—because he knew Frigga would take care of it—but the truth is that he didn’t tell Odin because he knows exactly how Odin would react, and he’s in no mood to be lectured.)

But it’s also partly because Loki is his best friend (though Loki would never believe that) and his brother (though Loki has not always wanted to acknowledge that) and he wants to share the happiest news of his life with the most important person in his life. Well, most important after Jane, he supposes.

So he FaceTimes Loki just a few hours after Jane accepts his proposal. Loki, to his credit, is immediately supportive and happy for him, which is big, because “supportive and happy” isn’t exactly Loki’s default setting.

“Congratulations,” he says with genuine warmth. “That’s exciting news. I knew you were serious about this Jane but I didn’t realize you were _this_ serious.”

“I wanted to talk to you about it,” Thor says. “You know, ask your advice. But you were busy with that huge conference you were organizing and I didn’t want to break your concentration.”

Loki waves away his apology, but Thor can see in his brother’s eyes that he’s happy that Thor thought about calling to ask his opinion about proposing. “Have you told our parents? What was their response?”

“Mother is thrilled, of course.”

“Let me guess.” Loki’s tone is dry, but there’s fondness in his eyes. “‘I’ve so been looking forward to being a grandmother’?”

“Something like that,” Thor laughs.

“And Odin?”

Thor fails to hide his wince. There’s a couple reasons for that reaction, really: hearing Loki refer to the man who raised him by his first name is a reminder of the difficult time the family went through when Loki he learned he was adopted. It always worries Thor to hear his brother speak this way, because his greatest fear in the whole world is that someday Loki will get angry and disappear again, only this time he won’t come back. Things are better now—Loki’s happy to call Frigga his mother, and he’s happy to call Thor his brother—so Thor’s trying hard to get past that fear and to respect Loki’s process of working through his feelings and to not get uncomfortable when he calls Father “Odin.”

Of course bringing up any of this right now would be a terrible idea, so Thor admits to the other reason for his wince. “He’s . . . not thrilled.”

Loki’s brow furrows inquisitively.

“Mother hasn’t quite admitted that aloud, but I’ve been reading between the lines,” Thor explains. “You know Father has always had . . . expectations for us.”

Loki sighs. “Marry someone with a lot of money and a lot of connections? Or the supermodel daughter of one of his golf buddies? Like Amora Incantare?”

Thor shrugs uncomfortably.

“Got to keep the business empire strong somehow,” Loki grumbles. “And a physics researcher from Nowheresville doesn’t fit his expectations?”

Another shrug.

“Jerk,” Loki says under his breath. Then, “Well, then Mother and I will have to be twice as happy for you, and twice as welcoming to Jane, to make up for it.”

It feels a little disloyal to speak about his beloved father this way, but Thor has to admit that it’s really nice to have Loki so firmly on his side. Besides, it’s not like what he’s been saying about Odin is anything but the truth.

(Marrying Jane Foster is the first time in his life that Thor Odinson has set a toe outside the narrow constraints of his father’s expectations for him, and it is equal parts disconcerting and thrilling.)

Apparently Loki is ready to start being welcoming now. “So when am I going to meet her? I have to admit to being pretty curious about the woman who convinced you to settle down. And to start watching space documentaries for fun.”

Thor grins broadly. “Who knew space was so interesting?”

“I could have told you that,” Loki retorts. “I _tried_ to tell you that, when we were eight.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t a cute girl I was trying to impress,” says Thor with a wink.

Loki rolls his eyes.

“Anyway, Jane and I are going to Asgard next week so she can meet Mother and Father,” Thor explains. “And I was thinking of giving us a long layover in Vanaheim on the way home, so you two can meet each other. Maybe a week from tomorrow? Jane really wants to check out the science museum downtown. You said it was really good, right?” Plus, in the off-chance the meeting goes badly, then they can distract themselves with the exhibits. “So we were thinking maybe we go out to eat and then you can be our tour guide at the museum?”

Loki scrolls through what must be a calendar on his smart watch. “I get back from my conference that morning,” he says. “So as long as it’s late afternoon or evening, that should be fine.”

Loki being accommodating: will wonders never cease? Thor thinks he can use this in the future: if he wants Loki to do something, just make sure he thinks that doing it will spite Odin.

“Perfect,” says Thor, then adds casually, “We also want to see Sif while we’re out there.”

No reaction. There never is.

Thor is not as shrewd as his father, or as insightful as his mother, or as clever as Loki. But he knows his brother better than he knows anyone else in this world, which is how he knows, despite Loki’s best attempts to hide it, that Loki is in love with their old friend Sif. And he has been, for a long time. It’s tiny, subtle things, like the way he reacts when she enters a room or speaks or smiles: too subtle to have any significance on their own, but when they’re taken as part of a ten-year-long pattern, the meaning of these little moments becomes undeniable.

But he’s never been able to get his brother to admit to it, and has learned the hard way that to press him on the subject will just make him refuse to talk to or about Sif for weeks.

Thor had been thrilled when Sif announced that she had accepted a job in Vanaheim, where Loki happened to already be living. Maybe, in a far-off city, away from all the baggage and hang-ups of high school, they’d grow close enough that Loki would let down the wall around his heart and finally admit his feelings to Sif.

Because here’s the thing: Sif isn’t nearly as hard to read as Loki is, and Thor is pretty sure that she’d be cool with it if Loki confessed his feelings to her.

So far, fourteen months of them living in the same city has not produced any declarations of undying love, but Thor isn’t giving up hope yet. Loki tells him that he and Sif hang out often, and Sif tells him how glad she is to have a friend in the city, and maybe someday something a little more romantic will come of it.

And with that thought, a mischievous idea pops into his head, and he says casually, “And since we can’t stay in Vanaheim long, I’ve been thinking maybe we should see both of you at the same time. So maybe all four of us do dinner and the museum? You know,” he chuckles casually, “like a double date.”

There is it: the tiniest flicker of eye movement from Loki. He is clearly affected by the idea of a date with Sif.

“So what do you think?”

Loki’s shrug is as artificially casual as Thor’s laugh was. “Sounds like a plan.”

. . . . . .

LOKI

. . . . . .

The flight from Nornheim is delayed, and Loki barely has time to get back to his condo, shower, change his clothes, do his hair, and get to the restaurant on time. He’s not thrilled about this turn of events, because he’d rather hoped to get back in time to share a cab over there with Sif.

Not for any selfish reasons, of course, but for her sake. Thor will have called her last week to tell her his news, which means that she’s had a week to absorb the shock of his announcement. Knowing Sif, she’s bearing it stoically, but he can only imagine what a mess she is inside, to know the man she’s always loved is marrying another.

After all, if it were Loki getting the news that Sif is marrying someone else, he would be absolutely devastated. So he’s certain that Sif is feeling devastated right now.

And he’d rather hoped to be there as a support for her, as she navigates what can only be a heartbreaking first meeting of the woman wearing the ring she’s always hoped to get for herself. (He knows that anyone who knows him would be shocked to hear him express such tender concern for another human being, but Sif has long had a way of getting him to do things he wouldn’t do for anyone else.)

But flight delays interfered, leaving him without enough time to get a cab, take the long detour to her place, and then get to the restaurant on time, so they get separate cabs to the restaurant. But luck is on his side, because when he gets there, Sif is climbing out her cab at the same time he’s climbing out of his.

“Good timing!” she grins as they approach each other on the sidewalk, and as always, she takes his breath away: dark burgundy top showing off her perfect figure; dark hair casually twisted up and away from her face so he can get the full effect of her sharp features and luminous skin. He thinks, as he does nearly every time he sees Sif, that he cannot understand how Thor could be such an idiot as to have this stunning woman in front of him for years—his for the asking—and never do anything about it. “Now we can go in together.”

Loki does his best to rustle up the perfect smile for this occasion: sympathetic, supportive, but not overbearingly so. “I’m glad I caught you,” he says gently. “How are you doing?”

Sif blinks, her brow furrowing a little, but then she grins again. “I’m great. How are you doing? How was Nornheim? Did everything work out for your conference?”

“It was great,” he says. “But how was your week? Are you . . . doing okay?”

Again her smile falters just a touch; probably his sympathetic question is causing her carefully constructed facade to slip. He should stop pushing her, let her keep her dignity. So he adds, “I mean with the remodeling at the gym. Did it cause as many problems as you’d been expecting?”

Her expression clears; no doubt she is thankful for the reprieve. (He should remember that Sif doesn’t like to talk about her feelings, and his well-meant sympathy is probably not as helpful as it would be for someone like Thor or Frigga.) “Definitely a pain,” she says. “We had to move the kickboxing classes into the yoga area and there is not enough room there for all the equipment. Luckily the contractors say they’ll be done by the end of next week.”

“Come on, Sif,” he says, unconsciously slipping into their usual banter, “I know you’re not dumb enough to believe a contractor will actually hit a deadline.”

She laughs. “I’m choosing to live in hope,” she says, then shoots a look at him that he can’t read. “It’s sweet of you to remember about the remodel.”

Crap, has he been too transparent? “That’s what friends are for,” he says glibly, because he likes to do this thing where he reminds Sif at every possible moment that they’re just friends, because maybe then she’ll never guess that he’s been in love with her since they were fifteen years old.

Again the briefest hesitation (does she _suspect?)_ and then again she smiles. “You certainly are a good friend,” she agrees. “Anyway I think Thor and his fiancée are already inside; shall we?”

If Loki were a braver person, he’d offer her his arm; it’s a bit old-fashioned but he’s always had a soft spot for old-fashioned things. But he’s not a braver person, so instead he hurries to the restaurant door so he can open it for her.

Inside they find Thor already seated at a corner table with a brown-haired woman, at whom he is looking like she holds the key to every good thing in the universe. She’s quite pretty, in her way, but she’s nothing on Sif.

Sometimes Loki does not understand his brother.

Thor’s face lights up like a neon sign when Sif and Loki appear, and he jumps up from his chair—it’s only luck that he doesn’t quite manage to knock it over—to throw his arms around his brother. “Loki! It’s been too long,” he declares, and Loki finds himself smiling a little from within the embrace. He was very unfair to Thor for a long time, he sees that now: always assuming that his brother didn’t truly care, that his brother thought he was better than him. Now that Loki’s back from his self-imposed exile, he’s trying to be better about not assuming the worst of Thor and his intentions. And this new effort has forced him to admit this to himself: Thor seems to very sincerely love him and very sincerely be glad to see him when they’ve been apart.

It’s surprising how much happier Loki has been since admitting that to himself.

So he hugs Thor back, and then he steps back while Thor hugs Sif; Loki watches closely the whole time, but Sif’s got a killer poker face. Any pain she’s feeling, she’s hiding deep down inside. And then Thor, beaming like a miniature sun, introduces them to his companion, and there’s pride and happiness in every syllable of the phrase “And this is my fiancée, Jane Foster.”

Jane Foster is kind but quiet; Loki is uncertain whether she’s shy or just a little ill at ease. It would be a tough situation to find yourself in: dining with three people who have known each other forever, and trying to find a way to establish yourself as a permanent new strand in this close-knit group. He imagines that it could be a little nerve-wracking to try. (But imagining it is all he can do, in a very theoretical sort of way; he’s never been serious enough with a girl to reach that point himself.)

Sif smiles throughout the whole thing. Loki is beginning to realize that she’s much better at hiding her feelings than he ever realized.

He’s sorry for her, truly. But also there’s a piece of him that wonders if this is his chance, if Thor’s engagement will convince her to sever the thread that’s always bound her to him, and if, once she’s stopped bleeding from that wound, she’ll find herself in a place where maybe she can consider Loki as a possibility. Maybe his endless yearning for the last twelve years—his pointless treading water, because Sif did not care for him and he couldn’t force himself to care for anyone else—can actually come to a fruitful end. 

He’s not going to do anything about that any time soon, of course—he can only imagine the chewing-out he’d get from Thor and Frigga if they knew he’d tried to swoop in when a girl was heartbroken and take advantage of her vulnerability—but he _is_ going to obsessively turn that idea over and over in his head for the next few months.

Obsessing is sort of a talent of his, if he does say so himself.

Their food arrives quickly, and over her sea bass, Jane Foster slowly begins to open up to the group. “Thor tells me you did your undergrad in physics,” she says to Loki. “And now you do patent law for scientific technology companies?”

Ah, yes, common ground. He tells her about his education and work, and she tells him about hers, and before long he has entirely forgotten that she was a little awkward at first. Now that she’s found her footing, Jane Foster is brilliant and outgoing and funny and seems to have no filter and no malicious bone in her body: basically Loki’s opposite in everything, except brains. But she’s a very entertaining conversationalist, and a woman of many fascinating ideas, and before long Loki can see how his brother could have fallen for her.

Of course, she’ll be eaten alive if she ever attempts to go to one of those high-society parties Odin is so fond of. But on the other hand, Loki’s now looking forward to family reunions a little more than he used to.

“And what do you do, Sif?” Jane asks.

“I manage a gym,” Sif explains. “And teach a lot of classes there.”

“Sif is ripped,” Thor says cheerfully, and it doesn’t seem to occur to him that his fiancée might find it strange that he’s gushing so warmly about the state of another woman’s body. “She’s, like, the most athletic person I know.”

“That’s how you met, right?” Jane asks. “The track team?”

“Yeah, she moved into the neighborhood in junior high and immediately joined the track team, which I was already on, and we were best friends from that point on. Loki, too, but he wasn’t on track team; he was too busy with drama club.”

“Some of my best friends were in drama club,” Jane says with a smile at Loki.

“Remember that time Fandral tried to jump a fence at practice?” Thor says with a grin at Sif. 

She laughs loudly and begins recounting the subsequent trip to the ER, and Jane turns a commiserating smile on Loki. “So, uh, AP Calculus?” she says as Thor and Sif laugh together.

Loki grins. He was right. He’s going to like having her around.

. . . . . .

JANE

. . . . . .

The museum is only a block away, so they make their way there on foot. Luckily this happens to be the day of the museum’s weekly Science Under The Stars evening, where it stays open until 10, so they’ll have loads of time to wander the exhibits.

(The point of this trip was to meet Loki and Sif, but there’s no reason Jane can’t also use the trip to enjoy a world-class science museum.)

Once inside, Loki, who has clearly been here several times, takes them immediately to the geology floor with its plate tectonics exhibit. One of the rooms here has been outfitted to look like a tiny convenience store, and every three minutes, a simulated earthquake shakes the room, sending bottles of soy sauce and cans of beans swaying back and forth. Thor and Sif are absolutely enchanted, and after experiencing it once, insist on waiting the three minutes until it goes again.

“Sorry,” Loki murmurs to Jane as Thor and Sif wait by the cash register, “this is probably really boring for you. But I figured it’d be a good way to get Thor and Sif excited about the science museum. This seems about their level.”

Immediately he looks embarrassed at his candor—perhaps because this is her fiancé he’s talking about—but Jane laughs aloud. “I think you thought exactly right,” she says. “Look at those two: they’re like kids in a candy store.”

Loki snorts. “So it doesn’t bother you that you’re twice as smart as your future husband?”

It’d be a very rude question from anyone else, but from the conversation at dinner, and from Thor’s stories about his brother, Jane thinks she’s getting a pretty good handle on his character, and she’s pretty certain he means the question affectionately.

“Thor’s got his own sort of intelligence,” she says loyally. “But no, it doesn’t bother me, and it’s never bothered him.” She gives Loki a smile. “It’s one of the things I like about him, really. The men I meet in my field, in STEM . . . most of them are great, and there a lot who prefer a partner who can keep up with them intellectually. But I’ve been surprised at the number who are really threatened by the possibility that a woman could be smarter than them. For Thor to genuinely admire my intelligence . . . that was a big reason I started dating him.”

“I suppose that’s a point in his favor,” is Loki’s reply, and there’s a touch of hauteur in his tone, but when she glances at him, there’s warmth in his eyes as he looks at his brother. She thinks of what Thor has told her about Loki’s prickly demeanor and complicated relationship with his family, and hopes that the possibility of getting her future brother-in-law to like her isn’t too out of reach.

She’s looking around for another topic of conversation when Loki asks, “So how did meeting Odin and Frigga go?”

Here Jane hesitates, wondering how best to put this, and Loki apparently notices. “Go ahead and say whatever you want,” he says. “There’s nothing terrible you can say about Odin that I haven’t already thought myself.”

“All the more reason for me not to say it,” she retorts without thinking. “I don’t want you to use me as an excuse to be mad at him.”

His eyebrows lift, and she shrinks a little in embarrassment, but then unexpectedly he grins. “A little backbone will serve you well in this family,” he says with approval in his tone. “Fine, I promise not to hold anything you say against Odin. I hope at least my mother was pleasant?”

“Oh, your mom is a delight,” says Jane honestly. “I love her already. If Thor and I ever break up, I’m petitioning for custody of Frigga in the divorce.”

Loki laughs aloud at that, and Jane sees that Thor was right: Loki loves his mother openly and fully, in a way he can’t quite manage with other people. “I guess that means that you and I will stay siblings forever, then, and have to cut Thor loose,” he says. “I’ll miss him, but I imagine I’ll have more intelligent conversations with you.”

That sounded very much like a compliment, and Jane smiles. Loki is indeed prickly and unapproachable, but it sounds like she might be succeeding in gaining his approval.

“And Odin?” he presses.

Again she hesitates, and he smirks at the expression on her face. She’s saved from answering, though, when the earthquake starts.

“This is the best museum ever,” Thor announces when it’s over, as he and Sif walk toward Jane and Loki. “Where to now?”

“Staircase at the end of the hall,” Loki says, and Thor and Sif lead the way.

As Jane and Loki fall into step behind them, Jane decides that she’d better answer Loki’s question, to keep him from believing the worst, and that she’d better be honest, because Thor says Loki’s really good at detecting lies. “Odin was perfectly polite,” she says, and he glances over at her, eyebrows raised. “But it did always have this air of . . . ‘It’s only good manners to be polite to the hired help.’ I got the impression that his good behavior was all your mother’s doing.”

“Sounds about right,” he mutters. “Look, I’m sure Thor told you this, but it’s not you. Odin has always had very specific expectations about our futures, and he’s very used to having his edicts obeyed without question. You could’ve been a Nobel Prize-winning supermodel who rescues orphaned baby seals, and he’d still be irritated that you’re not who he picked out for Thor.”

Thor never told her that precise detail. “Did he have someone picked out for Thor?”

Loki shrugs. “There were a number of women he would have approved of, but he always rather liked Amora Incantare for Thor. Her father is another high-powered business tycoon Odin knows well, and he always liked the idea of a marriage between them, to someday merge the companies.”

Yikes. That’s something she never knew about Thor and Odin. “And for you?”

“Oh, Amora has a sister,” he says, and grimaces. “Amora would be a trophy wife with lots of demands and very expensive tastes. But I think Lorelei Incantare would actually murder me in my sleep to take my money and use it to live in the French Riviera with a string of lovers.”

“So she was never really a temptation for you?” Jane laughs.

Loki, when he answers, sounds a little distracted and wistful. “No, never.”

Jane glances at him to find that his gaze is fixed on Sif up ahead of them.

She glances at Loki, then back at Sif. And then she grins.

They hit up the space area next, where Jane geeks out about literally everything, from the moon rock on display to the room of old spacesuits and satellites to the giant planetarium room where she runs around pointing out constellations and distant planets. Of course the science being discussed is all way below her level, intellectually, but this is just the sort of place she would have loved when she was younger, and it’s fun to feel like a kid again.

After that it’s dinosaurs, which turns out to be an interest that Thor and Loki shared as children. Before long they are standing in front of a life-sized animatronic stegosaurus, arguing about who broke whose T-rex model in third grade, and Jane finds herself standing with Sif in front of an exhibit about dinosaur eggs.

Sif is the member of their group she’s not completely comfortable around yet; she’s talked to her the least tonight. And she has to admit, she’s always been a little intimidated by the idea of her fiancé’s best friend. The stories that Thor tells about her . . . well, she sounds formidable.

Not to mention that it’s always been clear, from how Thor talks about her, that he thinks the world of her and that she’s a very important part of his life, and Jane really doesn’t want to be one of _those_ people but she’s always been just a tiny bit threatened by that. She knows perfectly well that it’s possible for people to just be friends, and she knows that Thor proposed to _her,_ not Sif, and that she should trust him, but it’s a little hard to remain so level-headed when Thor and Sif have years of shared history and a million interests in common, and when Sif is this stunningly gorgeous Amazon who makes Jane feel like a hobbit, in both size and appearance. So she’s not going to beat herself up for being just a little bit insecure standing next to Sif.

But Jane also knows that the best way to get past this is just to talk to the woman, so she puts on her best casual smile and gestures at Loki and Thor. “Are they always like this?”

Sif turns such a friendly, easy-going grin on Jane that she immediately feels herself relax. “Honestly, I’m really happy when they’re like this,” Sif admits. She hesitates. “I assume Thor told you about Loki . . .?”

Jane nods, and Sif’s expression turns a little sad. “That was a hard time. So I’m always glad when they’re, you know, feeling like they can tease and bicker. Like . . . maybe things are really okay, and they’re going to stay that way.”

Here Jane has been worrying about herself, and Sif has been worried about the relationship between the Odinson brothers. She chastises herself a little, then says, “I hope they do. Thor loves Loki so much. It’s really sweet.”

Sif glances over at the brothers, and her gaze softens. “And Loki loves Thor. He’s just . . . he’s been through a lot, and he has a hard time trusting that people actually care about him. Sometimes you have to beat him over the head a few times before he believes you’re serious about . . . being his friend.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jane murmurs. She glances at Sif, and then back at Loki, the wheels in her head turning. “I bet it’s a lot of fun, living in the same city as Loki now,” she says casually.

Sif grins. “It is. I would have taken this job offer even if Loki hadn’t been living here, but I’m super glad he is. It’s so nice having a friend in town.”

“You guys hang out a lot?

“Yeah, maybe once a week.”

“Does that make dating hard?” Jane asks curiously. “If you’re always busy with someone else?”

Sif snorts. “I haven’t really dated a ton in Vanaheim,” she admits. “I spend all my time at work, and the guys who hit on me there . . . I don’t know. Not really my thing.”

“Huh,” says Jane. “Yeah, that’s got to be hard.”

A few minutes later, both Loki and Sif need to use the bathroom, and as soon as they’re inside the restrooms, Jane rounds on Thor. “Okay, what is the deal with those two?”

Thor looks at her, glances over at the closed bathroom doors, then looks back, his face lit up with understanding and eagerness. “I know, right?” he demands. “They should definitely date?”

“Definitely,” she agrees firmly. “They keep sort of _gazing_ at each other. Sif, I think, would totally go for it. Loki . . . he’s harder to read.”

“He’s totally in love with her,” Thor says confidently. “Has been since we were teenagers. But I can’t figure out why he won’t do anything about it. Especially now that they live in the same town.”

“Well, besides the obvious reason,” says Jane. Thor looks blankly at her. “I mean,” she says, “he’s got a lot of pride. And being proud also means being massively insecure. I am positive that the thought of telling her how he feels and having her reject him seems like it wouldn’t just be heartbreaking, it’d be humiliating in a way he couldn’t deal with. Confessing means being vulnerable, and I get the sense that Loki is convinced that he would rather be alone forever than have to bare his heart to Sif and give her the opportunity to stomp on it.”

“Wow,” says Thor, “after one night, you know him as well as I do.”

She shrugs. “I have a lot of experience with smart people with fragile egos.”

“And Sif hates talking about her feelings,” Thor sighs. “So what do we do?”

“You’re going to ask him to be best man, right? I could ask her to be a bridesmaid. Then they’ll have to spend loads of time together. ‘One wedding brings another,’ right?”

Thor loves that idea. “If that doesn’t work, we could invite them to come visit us in Midgard. Take them to all our favorite romantic spots. Or make them godparents to our first kid! Then they’ll have to be all domestic together!”

“I already said Darcy could be godmother to our first kid,” says Jane apologetically. “Second kid?”

“Brilliant,” says Thor.

“What’s brilliant?” says Loki, appearing suddenly in the bathroom door.

“Jane’s brilliant,” beams Thor.

And Jane beams back at him.

. . . . . .

SIF

. . . . . .

When the museum starts getting ready to close up for the night, the four new friends—Sif is quite comfortable referring to Jane as a friend now—gather on the sidewalk in front of the doors.

“You guys want to walk?” Loki asks. “Maybe grab some ice cream?”

Clearly he’s taken very quickly to Jane, for him to want the evening not to end, and Sif finds herself smiling. “I’m game.”

Thor and Jane glance at each other. “Normally I’d always say yes to ice cream,” says Thor, “but we have to get up crazy early for our flight tomorrow.”

“Crazy early,” agrees Jane.

“Sorry to be a party pooper, but I think we need to go to bed. But you two should go get ice cream!”

Sif isn’t eager for the night to end, so she shrugs. “That works for me.”

Loki has been shooting an odd look at Thor, but at her words he looks back, surprised. “You sure? I mean, yeah, I’d love to go get ice cream.”

So they bid Jane and Thor farewell, exchanging social media handles and phone numbers and making plans to hang out when they all go to Asgard this summer. Hugs are exchanged, and then Thor and Jane climb into a cab and disappear into the night.

“So,” Loki says, “ice cream?”

There’s a shop across the street, and they make their way over there and hop in line, chatting about the evening they just had.

“I can’t believe I’ve never been to that museum before,” says Sif. “I can’t believe we’ve never gone together.”

“I didn’t think you’d be into it,” Loki confesses. “Science was never really your thing.”

“Yeah, but you’re my friend,” says Sif. “That means we compromise. Sometimes we do stuff I want to do, and sometimes we want to do stuff you want to do.”

There’s the briefest hesitation, and then Loki says, “That makes sense. Because we’re friends.”

And Sif fights back a sigh. If she’d been thinking about it, she probably would have worded that slightly differently. Loki’s got this thing he does, where he reminds her constantly that they’re friends, they’re friendly, you’re my friend, Sif, always just my friend, and it always bums Sif out.

At first she liked it. She’d just moved to Vanaheim, and she had no idea if Loki would be glad to have her nearby; they’d been good friends when they were younger, but then his discovery about his true birth and parentage had led to an absolutely massive fight with Odin, and he’d moved to Nornheim for a couple years and had next to no contact with the family. Now that he’s back in the country, his relationship with Frigga and Thor is much better, but still, she’d been worried that he wouldn’t be happy to have someone from home in his city and up in his business; after all, he moved to Vanaheim to be away from Asgard. But apparently he was quite pleased to have her in town; they quickly renewed their old friendship, and started hanging out, and she appreciated the reassurance he constantly gave her that _we’re friends._

But in the last six months, she’s started the resent the phrase a little bit. It has started to feel like a constant reminder that they will never be anything _but_ friends, never anything more than old buddies who go out to eat a lot. It’s started to feel like he does it on purpose, to make sure she doesn’t get any ideas about the two of them and that she knows there is no romance between them. And it turns out she doesn’t actually love knowing that.

They’re at the counter now, so they order their ice cream and Loki pays. Normally she’s big on paying her own way, and not needing a guy to buy things for her, but it seems to make Loki happy and he makes like four times as much money as her so she lets him do it. There’s nowhere to sit—this is the center of town, and the shop is bustling even at ten o’clock at night—so they decide to walk and eat.

For the first few moments they’re distracted by their ice cream (hers on a cone because she likes eating the cone after, his in a cup because he thinks cones are messy), and then Sif says, “So Jane seems cool.”

Loki glances at her. “She does seem cool,” he says, and his voice almost sounds cautious. She glances at him but can make no sense of his expression.

“I’m sure you’ll be glad to have someone at family parties you can talk about science stuff with,” she jokes.

“That will be nice,” he confesses. “Distraction for when Thor and Odin start talking about football.”

She laughs. “I liked her. Not at all who I saw Thor ending up with, but he seems really happy.”

Loki stares at her.

“What?”

“Just . . . you know you can be honest with me, right?”

“What?”

“I understand if you don’t want to talk,” he says, “but if you ever do, I’m here.”

She has never heard Loki sound so concerned about another human, and it baffles her even more than his cryptic words. “What is it you imagine I need to talk about?” she demands.

“You know,” he shrugs.

“I really don’t.”

He glances over at her. “About Thor?” he says finally, in a tone that says he doesn’t understand why she isn’t following.

“Thor?”

“Yeah. And Jane.”

Sif stops dead in the middle of the sidewalk; luckily they’re on a quiet street and the sidewalk is wide, and the few people passing by can easily get past them. She catches Loki’s arm with her free hand, and he stops and turns back, and they stand there on the sidewalk and stare at each other, painted gold and black by the streetlamp above them. “Loki, do you think I’m upset about Thor’s engagement?”

He gives her an expressive look, one she thinks is meant to convey _Don’t we both know it’s true?_

“Loki, I don’t want Thor,” she says firmly. “I’m not pining for Thor. I’m not in love with him.”

In the lamplight, she sees his expression grow skeptical, and she rolls her eyes. “Do me the courtesy of believing me when I talk,” she requests. “Where are you getting this idea that I have feelings for him?”

His brow is furrowing. “You told me.”

“I did not,” she retorts. “Why would I have said something that wasn’t true?” She hesitates. “Unless—are you talking about that conversation we had at Homecoming that one time?”

His shrug and accompanying nod look a little uncertain.

“Loki, that was ten years ago! Did you think I’d been holding onto that crush for a decade?”

For some reason that makes him fidget a little. “It’s not just that,” he insists. “You talk about him all the time.”

“Of course I do! He’s been my best friend for fourteen years. And he’s your brother. Of course he’s going to come up in conversation.”

“And you guys text and Marco Polo and Snapchat each other all the time.”

“Exactly as much as I contact Fandral and Volstagg and Hogun. Are you imagining I’m in love with them too?”

Loki looks agitated. “But—of course you’re in love with Thor,” he suddenly bursts out. “Everyone is.”

“Not everyone,” she insists. “Look, okay, yes, I had a massive crush on him in high school. And a little in college. But then I started meeting people at college, and I started noticing other guys, and I started going on dates with a bunch of different people. And I learned something important about myself: I’m actually not that into other gym rats. They’re too similar to me; it’s like dating myself, and I get bored of them really quickly. I’m far happier with people who actually aren’t anything like me. They keep my interest much better.”

Loki is staring, open-mouthed. “So what is your type, then?”

Skinny pale smart guys, to be honest, but she doesn’t think this is the moment to bring that up. She genuinely can’t decide what Loki’s baffled face is supposed to mean, so she dodges the question. “Is this why you’ve been so concerned and hover-y all evening? I was starting to feel like you knew I had some fatal disease, the way you kept looking at me.”

He shrugs, looking a little shell-shocked. “Just . . . trying to be a good friend.”

Ah, there it is again, and Sif’s frustration suddenly boils over. “You know, you don’t have to remind me every twenty minutes that friendship is all you want from me. I get it.”

Oh, she did not mean to say that out loud. That felt like half a confession, and Sif is suddenly overwhelmed with humiliation. She can feel heat rushing to her cheeks, which is not acceptable: she doesn’t do emotional displays, if she can possibly avoid them. So she turns and marches away from Loki, unsure whether or not she wants him to follow, unsure whether she wants him to understand why she got so irritated at him. (Actually, she knows the answer to that: yes, _if_ he’s inclined to respond positively.)

Footsteps pound behind her, and Loki stops her with a gentle touch to her arm. “Does that make you unhappy that I do that?” he asks, and there’s such ironclad control in his voice that she has no idea what he’s feeling.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says without looking at him, wondering how this evening went from so very normal to her blurting out long-held secrets she meant to keep to herself.

“Excuse me, but it matters a lot.”

Still she can’t quite answer; if she told him the truth and he was sincere about only wanting to be friends, she could destroy their friendship. So she stands there awkwardly a long moment, her back still to Loki, until she feels his hand fall away from her arm.

“Sorry,” he mutters, and she can hear that he’s backed away from her, like he’s going to leave, and it occurs to her that they’ll probably never be brave enough to talk about this sort of thing again. And suddenly the thought of putting all their cards on the table sounds rather appealing to Sif. She just spent an evening watching Thor moon over the love of his life, and has had to admit to herself that she is never going to find that for herself if she spends all her time tiptoeing around her feelings for Loki: never willing to tell him, but never willing to move on to someone else either.

Maybe it’s time to do something drastic.

“Yeah, it bugs me,” she says, her back still to him. “And since I answered your question, now I’m going to ask one. Why do you always do it? Is the thought of you and me ever being more than friends that disgusting to you?”

She turns around, but Loki doesn’t answer. He doesn’t even react; he’s just standing there looking at her with a blank expression. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, she reminds herself: Loki likes to thinks through things, examine them from every angle, before he commits to speaking or acting.

Still, this silence is getting a little uncomfortably long, so she adds, “Because it’s not disgusting to me.”

That gets a reaction. “Really?” he asks, something kindling to life in his eyes.

“Yeah,” she says, forcing herself not to look away, because she’s pretty bold and confident but even she’s got her limits when it comes to chutzpah. “I’d actually be pretty happy about it.”

The night is dark but the street is well lit, enough that she sees with perfect clarity when his face lights up in a hopeful, disbelieving smile. “Really?”

Relief rushes through her. “Really.”

He hesitates. “Me too,” he says, and Sif knows him well enough to read in his face how much that moment of vulnerability cost him. “Would you . . . want to go out some time? With me? On a date?”

She grins. “We’re already on a date,” she points out. “Or at least Thor called this a double date when he called to invite me. Are you asking me on a second date?”

And he gets into the banter. “Well, if hanging out with Thor and Jane was our first date, then this feels like a second date—getting ice cream, just the two of us . . .”

“Then are you asking me on a third date?” she teases, and she couldn’t stop smiling if she tried, because she’s flirting with Loki Odinson and he’s flirting back, which is not something she ever expected to experience in this lifetime. “I mean, third date: that’s getting a little serious.” 

“Would you . . . be interested in that?” he asks hesitantly, and it occurs to her how much this conversation is probably stressing him out, to be so vulnerable in front of another human.

So she gives him the most straightforward answer she can: “Yes,” she says, her eyes smiling but her voice serious.

His eyes widen.

“If,” she goes on, “you tell me why you always insist we’re only friends.” Because she’s letting herself be vulnerable too, and she needs to know where his head is at.

He fixes his gaze on hers for a long moment. And then he gives her a little half-smile. “Because I didn’t want you to guess that I wanted more. I was so convinced that you were in love with Thor.”

Sif’s courage rises, along with the pounding in her heart. “It’s been you for a long time,” she confesses.

Loki stares. And then he takes a step toward her. And then he asks, “How do you feel about kissing on the second date?”

And Sif grins. “In this case, I feel very positively about it.”

Loki does not smile. Loki takes her ice cream cone from her hand and walks away.

Sif stares at him, baffled and a little hurt, until she sees him throw their ice cream in the nearest bin, stride back to her, and swoop in for a very assured, very thorough kiss.

She’d laugh, if her mouth wasn’t otherwise occupied.

“You took my ice cream,” she points out when they’ve broken apart some time later.

“I wanted you to have your hands free,” he murmurs against her mouth.

“Can’t argue with that,” she grins. “I’ve been wanting to touch your hair for a long time. I’m glad I finally got the chance.”

Apparently that warrants another kiss, in Loki’s book. Sif doesn’t mind.

“I’ll buy you ice cream for our third date,” he promises some time later. “If you keep kissing me like that.”

“Easiest ice cream cone I ever earned,” she grins, because apparently kissing Loki and learning that he’s long been interested in her makes her a little giddy and goofy.

He moves to kiss her again, but she takes a step back. “That agreement goes both ways,” she teases solemnly. “If you expect me to kiss you again, I expect a third date with ice cream.”

Loki grins at her, and she stares a little, because she can’t remember if she’s ever seen him so at ease and so thoroughly, unguardedly happy. “Fine,” he says, looking at his watch. “The ice cream shop is open for another hour. Our third date starts now.”

He holds out a hand, and she very happily takes it, and they set off down the street.

“Thor’s going to be insufferably smug when he finds out we’re—” He hesitates, and when he finishes, “Dating,” it sounds like a question.

She squeezes his hand. “Dating,” she confirms.

“Dating,” he repeats, with a hint of a smile tipping up the corner of his mouth. “He’s been bugging me about this for a long time.”

“Really? Why?”

He shrugs, and isn’t as casual as he seems to want to be when he says, “He could tell I was . . . interested. In you.”

“Could he?” she grins. “For a long time?”

Everything about Loki’s body language says that he is trying hard to disguise his self-consciousness.

“You’re adorable,” she informs him, because she knows him well enough to know he needs some explicit, unmistakable positive affirmation in his life. “And I guess we owe Thor, then, for making us come on this double date tonight.”

“I suppose,” says Loki with a long-suffering sigh, but when she looks at him, he’s smiling.

She smiles back.

. . . . . .

fin


End file.
